Raindrops, roses, whiskers, kittens - all lovely items to be sure, but perhaps not the gifts that will make the holidays glow as brightly as you'd like. Certainly not* if they're for the food lover in your life.

With that in mind, as a person who lives, breathes and, yes, eats food for a living, I'm sharing my personal list of beloved foods, drinks, gadgets, books and save-the-world gifts to fill the hearts and mouths of your favorite food freaks. And yes, they're all available online.
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CNN photojournalist Jeremy Harlan is based in Washington D.C. This is the third installment in a series on what to cook for a pregnant spouse - and now, a newborn. In this instance, beast is a loving term. Read the first and second installment.

You don't ever want to meet Mungry. Trust me.

My wife and I have been super blessed with the most unfussy, spirited and sleep-loving baby. Lucy has truly been the model infant. But, when that lower lip begins to quiver and Sophie the Giraffe is flung head over hoof from the Bumbo perch, we know Lucy has left the dining room. We are now face to face with her very angry alter-ego: Mungry (Her scowled face looks as if she's howling, 'Mmmm, Hungry!"). These genes came from her dad. An unfed Harlan is a very unhappy Harlan.
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Linda Petty is an editor at CNN Living. She likes boxed mixes, tarted-up vegetables, letting produce rot in her crisper, eating breakfast at her desk, raiding your pantry, ice cream cones and other frozen delights.

Homemade ice cream is headed my way and I won’t have to lift a finger. That’s because I gave my ice cream machine to a friend of mine and he has big plans.

It took me a while to dig it out of the appliance cemetery - also known as the tippy top shelves of the cupboards in my kitchen. It was buried there after I had used it twice, for a banana pudding ice cream and a strawberry sorbet.

But I just had to have the machine after watching Oprah Winfrey on her old show talking rapturously about all the low-cal treats that could be made in the easy-to-use thingy. It was sort of easy to make the frozen desserts. But it was also easy to eat the whole dessert - which sort of canceled out the low-cal part. And then there was the cleaning of all the parts.

So now the machine is taking up residence at my friend’s house, much to the dismay of his wife. She feels they have enough small kitchen appliances crowding their cupboards that they already fail to use more than once a year.
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